American and British English differences

Grammar

[edit] Nouns
[edit] Formal and notional agreement
In BrE, collective nouns can take either singular (formal agreement) or plural (notional
agreement) verb forms, according to whether the emphasis is on the body as a whole or on the
individual members respectively; compare a committee was appointed with the committee
were unable to agree.[10][11] The term the Government always takes a plural verb in British civil
service convention, perhaps to emphasise the principle of collective responsibility.[12]
Compare also the following lines of Elvis Costello's song "Oliver's Army": Oliver's Army are
on their way / Oliver's Army is here to stay. Some of these nouns, for example staff,[13]
actually combine with plural verbs most of the time.
In AmE collective nouns are usually singular in construction: the committee was unable to
agree. AmE may use plural pronouns, however, in agreement with collective nouns: the team
take their seats, rather than the team takes its seats. The rule of thumb is that a group acting as
a unit is considered singular and a group of "individuals acting separately" is considered
plural.[14] However such a sentence would most likely be recast as the team members take
their seats. Despite exceptions such as usage in the New York Times, the names of sports
teams are usually treated as plurals even if the form of the name is singular.[15]
The difference occurs for all nouns of multitude, both general terms such as team and
company and proper nouns (for example where a place name is used to refer to a sports team).
For instance,
BrE: The Clash are a well-known band; AmE: The Clash is a well-known band.
BrE: Spain are the champions; AmE: Spain is the champion.
Proper nouns that are plural in form take a plural verb in both AmE and BrE; for example,
The Beatles are a well-known band; The Saints are the champions.

[edit] Verbs
[edit] Verb morphology
See also: English irregular verbs

• The past tense and past participle of the verbs learn, spoil, spell, burn, dream, smell,
spill, leap, and others, can be either irregular (learnt, spoilt, etc.) or regular (learned,
spoiled, etc.). In BrE, both irregular and regular forms are current, but for some words
(such as smelt and leapt) there is a strong tendency towards the irregular forms,
especially by users of Received Pronunciation. For other words (such as dreamed,
leaned, and learned[16]) the regular forms are somewhat more common. In AmE the
irregular forms are never or rarely used (except for burnt and leapt).[17]
The t endings may be encountered frequently in older American texts. Usage may vary
when the past participles are used as adjectives, as in burnt toast. (The two-syllable
form learnèd /ˈlɜrnɪd/, usually written without the grave, is used as an adjective to
mean "educated" or to refer to academic institutions in both BrE and AmE.) Finally,
the past tense and past participle of dwell and kneel are more commonly dwelt and
knelt in both standards, with dwelled and kneeled as common variants in the US but
not in the UK.
• Lit as the past tense of light is more common than lighted in the UK; the regular form
is used more in the US but is nonetheless less common than lit.[18] Conversely, fit as
the past tense of fit is more widely used in AmE than BrE, which generally favours
 fitted.[19]
• The past tense of spit "expectorate" is spat in BrE, spit or spat in AmE.[20] AmE
typically has spat in figurative contexts, e.g. "He spat out the name with a sneer", or in
the context of expectoration of an object that is not saliva, e.g. "He spat out the foul-
tasting fish" but spit for "expectorated" when it refers only to the expulsion of saliva.
• The past participle of saw is normally sawn in BrE and sawed in AmE (as in sawn-
off/sawed-off shotgun).[21]
• The past participle gotten is never used in modern BrE, which generally uses got,
except in old expressions such as ill-gotten gains. According to the Compact Oxford
English Dictionary, "The form gotten is not used in British English but is very
common in North American English, though even there it is often regarded as non-
standard." In AmE gotten emphasizes the action of acquiring and got tends to indicate
simple possession (for example, Have you gotten it? versus Have you got it?). Gotten
is also typically used in AmE as the past participle for phrasal verbs using get, such as
get off, get on, get into, get up, and get around: If you hadn't gotten up so late, you
might not have gotten into this mess. Interestingly, AmE, but not BrE, has forgot as a
less common alternative to forgotten for the past participle of forget.
• In BrE, the past participle proved is strongly preferred to proven; in AmE, proven is
now about as common as proved.[22] (Both dialects use proven as an adjective, and in
formulas such as not proven).[23]
• AmE further allows other irregular verbs, such as dive (dove) or sneak (snuck), and
often mixes the preterit and past participle forms (spring–sprang, US also sprung–
sprung), sometimes forcing verbs such as shrink (shrank–shrunk) to have a further
form, thus shrunk–shrunken. These uses are often considered nonstandard; the AP
Stylebook in AmE treats some irregular verbs as colloquialisms, insisting on the
regular forms for the past tense of dive, plead and sneak. Dove and snuck are usually
considered nonstandard in Britain, although dove exists in some British dialects and
snuck is occasionally found in British speech.
• By extension of the irregular verb pattern, verbs with irregular preterits in some
variants of colloquial AmE also have a separate past participle, for example, "to buy":
past tense bought spawns boughten. Such formations are highly irregular from speaker
to speaker, or even within idiolects. This phenomenon is found chiefly in the northern
US and other areas where immigrants of German descent are predominant and may
have developed as a result of German influence.[24] Even in areas where the feature
predominates, however, it has not gained widespread acceptance as standard usage.
[edit] Use of tenses
• Traditionally, BrE uses the present perfect to talk about an event in the recent past and
with the words already, just and yet. In American usage these meanings can be
expressed with the present perfect (to express a fact[citation needed]) or the simple past (to
imply an expectation[citation needed]). This American style has become widespread only in
the past 20 to 30 years; the British style is still in common use as well. Recently the
American use of just with simple past has made inroads into BrE, most visibly in
advertising slogans and headlines such as "Cable broadband just got faster".
• "I've just arrived home." / "I just arrived home."
 • "I've already eaten." / "I already ate."
• Similarly AmE occasionally replaces the past perfect with the simple past.[citation needed]
• In BrE, have got or have can be used for possession and have got to and have to can be
used for the modal of necessity. The forms that include ‘‘got’’ are usually used in
informal contexts and the forms without got in contexts that are more formal. In
American speech the form without got is used more than in the UK, although the form
with got is often used for emphasis. Colloquial AmE informally uses got as a verb for
these meanings – for example, I got two cars, I got to go.
• In conditional sentences, US spoken usage often substitutes would and would have
(usually shortened to [I]'d and [I]'d have) for the simple past and for the pluperfect (If
you'd leave now, you'd be on time. / If I would have [I'd've] cooked the pie we could
have [could've] had it for lunch). This tends to be avoided in writing because it is
often still considered non-standard although such use of would is widespread in
spoken US English in all sectors of society. Some reliable sources now label this usage
as acceptable US English and no longer label it as colloquial.[25][26] (There are, of
course, situations where would is used in British English too in seemingly
counterfactual conditions, but these can usually be interpreted as a modal use of
would: If you would listen to me once in a while, you might learn something.[27][28] In
cases in which the action in the if clause takes place after that in the main clause, use
of would in counterfactual conditions is, however, considered standard and correct
usage in even formal UK and US usage: If it would make Bill happy, I'd [I would] give
him the money.[27]
• The subjunctive mood (morphologically identical with the bare infinitive) is regularly
used in AmE in mandative clauses (as in They suggested that he apply for the job). In
BrE, this usage declined in the 20th century in favour of constructions such as They
suggested that he should apply for the job (or even, more ambiguously, They
suggested that he applied for the job). However the mandative subjunctive has always
been used in BrE.[29]
[edit] Verbal auxiliaries
• Shall (as opposed to will) is more commonly used by the British than by Americans.
[30][31]
Shan't is almost never used in AmE (almost invariably replaced by won't or am
not going to) and is increasingly rare in BrE as well. American grammar also tends to
ignore some traditional distinctions between should and would;[32] however,
expressions like I should be happy are rather formal even in BrE.
• The periphrastic future (be going to) is about twice as frequent in AmE as in BrE.[33]
[edit] Transitivity
The following verbs show differences in transitivity between BrE and AmE.

• agree: Transitive or intransitive in BrE, usually intransitive in AmE (agree a

contract/agree to or on a contract). However in formal AmE legal writing one often
sees constructions such as as may be agreed between the parties (rather than as may
be agreed upon between the parties).
• appeal (as a decision): Usually intransitive in BrE (used with against) and transitive in
AmE (appeal against the decision to the Court/appeal the decision to the Court).[34]
 • catch up ("to reach and overtake"): Transitive or intransitive in BrE, strictly
intransitive in AmE (to catch sb up/to catch up with sb). A transitive form does exist in
AmE, but has a different meaning: to catch sb up means that the subject will help the
object catch up, rather the opposite of the BrE transitive meaning.
• cater ("to provide food and service"): Intransitive in BrE, transitive or intransitive in
AmE (to cater for a banquet/to cater a banquet).
• claim: Sometimes intransitive in BrE (used with for), strictly transitive in AmE.
• meet: AmE uses intransitively meet followed by with to mean "to have a meeting
with", as for business purposes (Yesterday we met with the CEO), and reserves
transitive meet for the meanings "to be introduced to" (I want you to meet the CEO;
she is such a fine lady), "to come together with (someone, somewhere)" (Meet the
CEO at the train station), and "to have a casual encounter with". BrE uses transitive
meet also to mean "to have a meeting with"; the construction meet with, which actually
dates back to Middle English, appears to be coming back into use in Britain, despite
some commentators who preferred to avoid confusion with meet with meaning
"receive, undergo" (the proposal was met with disapproval). The construction meet up
with (as in to meet up with someone), which originated in the US,[35] has long been
standard in both dialects.
• provide: Strictly monotransitive in BrE, monotransitive or ditransitive in AmE
(provide sb with sth/provide sb sth).
• protest: In sense "oppose", intransitive in BrE, transitive in AmE (The workers
protested against the decision/The workers protested the decision). The intransitive
protest against in AmE means, "to hold or participate in a demonstration against". The
older sense "proclaim" is always transitive (protest one's innocence).
• write: In BrE, the indirect object of this verb usually requires the preposition to, for
example, I'll write to my MP or I'll write to her (although it is not required in some
situations, for example when an indirect object pronoun comes before a direct object
noun, for example, I'll write her a letter). In AmE, write can be used monotransitively
(I'll write my congressman; I'll write him).
[edit] Complementation
• The verbs prevent and stop can be found in two different constructions: "prevent/stop
someone from doing something" and "prevent/stop someone doing something". The
latter is well established in BrE, but not in AmE.
• Some verbs can take either a to+infinitive construction or a gerund construction (e.g.,
to start to do something/to start doing something). For example, the gerund is more
common:
• In AmE than BrE, with start, begin, omit, enjoy
• In BrE than AmE, with love, like, intend